[below, in a scene from 'Zhang Xinsheng," Wang Xianzhai is at center, in dark glasses. Click on image to enlarge]
After the huge success of the previous year's "Yan Ruisheng," the Mingxing (Star) studio decided to follow up on its own hit from 1922, "An Orphan Rescues his Grandfather," by bringing out another docudrama recreating a sensational true-life murder case. It was fortunate for Mingxing that "Orphan," which actually saved the studio financially, came out prior to this one, because if the sequence of release was reversed it probably would have finished off the studio at that point. Although the case had grasped the public's attention when it occurred, and the studio put its best on- and off-screen talent into making it, they exceeded the audience's tolerance limits. The scenes of degradation and the victim's agonized death throes were too graphic, and the last straw was the recreation of the corpse's exhumation and autopsy: people literally fled from the theater, and the film was withdrawn within a few days of its release. Although it may seem strange to refer to a total failure as a "lost classic," this film actually holds a place in China's film history as one of its classic failures.
Zhang Xinsheng (1923) 张欣生 (Zhang Xinsheng)
aka: Baoying Zhaozheng (1923) 报应昭彰 (Manifest Retribution)
Mingxing. 8 reels. Premiered January 1, 1923 at the Embassy Theater. Direction: Zhang Shichuan. Screenplay: Zheng Zhengqiu. Cinematography: Zhang Weitao. Cast: Mei Chunqian (Zhang Xinsheng), Hu Zhiqiang (Zhu Zhaosheng), Zheng Zhegu (Zhang Jiayun), Yan Zhongying (Zhu Jianchen), Gu Zhensheng (Zhang Fengsheng), Zheng Zhengqiu (Xinsheng's mother), Zheng Xiaoqiu (Xinsheng's son). Also: Wang Xianzhai.
The Zhang family are prosperous Shanghai rice merchants, but family scion Xinsheng is a ne'er-do-well playboy, a habitual drinker and gambler who squanders his allowance and hangs out with thugs, from whom Xinsheng borrows to support his playboy lifestyle. At last, heavily in debt and pressured by gangsters, he goes to his father Zhang Jiayun for more. The elder Zhang is solely responsible for the family's wealth, and not only flatly refuses to dip further into their fortunes to support his son's lifestyle, he cuts off his allowance, leaving Xinsheng even worse off. Xinsheng often consults an astrologer, Zhu Zhaosheng, and one day the latter plants in Xinsheng's mind the idea of poisoning his father. Starting the next day, Xinsheng forces his wife to mix a small amount of arsenic in the soup when she serves her father-in-law his meals. His wife is too afraid to refuse, and the elder man gradually grows weaker and dies. The general belief is that nothing suspicious has occurred, and Zhang Jiayun has merely succumbed to old age. After Xinsheng inherits the entire family fortune and property, he pays off his debts and generously rewards Zhu Zhaosheng. But the astrologer has a lover, a married woman from whom he keeps nothing, and one day he tells her the secret of Zhang Jiayun's murder. Guilty over her infidelity and the knowledge she now has, the woman confesses all to her husband, who in a jealous rage makes the whole story public. When the authorities hear of it, Zhang Xinsheng and Zhu Zhaosheng are arrested, the body is exhumed and an autopsy performed, resulting in death sentences for the two conspirators.
